Saturday, January 31, 2015

The Rare Documents of
Jayantika

The word ‘jayantika’ rings a
bell in the mind of each and every Odissi dancers, old or new, upcoming or
established, professional o amateur. All of us know that towards the end of the
50’s an association was formed among the guru, intellectuals, dance
researchers and practitioners with the
intent to systematize the practice and teaching of the Odissi style as it was
known till then. Repertoire and technique was discussed, dress code was decided
and fixed and guidelines were laid down for the future generation of Odissi
dancers. In few words if we are existing today and dancing away Odissi in the
four corners of the globe is largely thanks to Jayantika and the people who
took part in it.

It is then surprising that in
the first two publications on Odissi dance, that is the Marg issue on Odissi curated by M. Khokar
in 1960 and the book by D. N. Patnaik published in 1971, Jayantika and its good intents and purposes
don’t find any place. In fact I should say that if I had to base my writing on
the few information about it found in
the existing literature on Odissi dance, I would not have much material besides
the generic data that all of us already have.

A chance meeting a couple of
years ago, in a social function, with a lady, Vijayalaxmi Das, who introduced
herself as the elder daughter of guru Dayanidhi Das, prompted me to ask her if
she happened to have any documents from
her father time related to Jayantika. My question it seems sparked some
curiosity in her and made her go back and unearth from an old almirah a bunch
of hand written loose papers which were laying down since her father death and
to which until then she had not given any importance. The discovery and my enquiries made her aware
of the importance of those documents which contain detailed proceedings of all
the meetings of Jayantika which took place
from June 1958 onwards, mostly hand written by her father but also by Gora
Chand Misra (a journalist), guru Raghu Dutta and few others.

Although a teacher by profession, Vijayalaxmi is a trained
Hindusthani singer and she is at the head of the Dayanidhi Sruti Kala Parishad
in Cuttack which comes out every year
with an annual souvenir called Kala Srujani; in the last four issues of
the souvenir, she has published few of
these documents both in the original forms and in the transliterated one.

Mainly due to the busy schedule
of her teaching assignments, it took quite sometime for me to be able to meet
her and to get access and take vision of all the remaining papers and when
finally it happened I was totally taken aback by the amount of work documented
in it. My reviewing of the materials is certainly not over, it actually just
started, but I thought it would be
interesting to bring to light whatever discovered so far.

Aims and Motivations

From the introductory speech given by the president Biranchi Narayan
Routray ( a journalist who was working for the Prajatantra newspaper) during
the first meeting of the association (which was known at first as Nikhila
Utkala Nrutya Silpi Sangha) at 3 P.M. on the 22nd of June 1958 at
Banka Bazaar, we come to know that the need of the moment was to do research on
different aspects of classical and folk dances, to establish rules in the
teaching system which would assure uniformity in the execution of bhangi and mudra, to aim at a broader publicity for Odissi dance, and to
secure co-operation among the different guru-s and institutions. The agenda of
the meeting was: to discuss difference
of opinions among the practitioners, to know the difficulties encountered by
the teachers, to establish the required qualifications for becoming members and
to chose a name for the new association. At this regard the names proposed were
Chhanda o Kala by Mayadhar Rout, Sanja Akhada by Dev Prasad Das, Jayantika by
Biranchi Routray (because all the new births are celebrated as jayanti-s), Nada Nupura by Dayanidhi Das
and Nrutya Srusti by Gora Chand Misra. The governing body at this stage was
formed by Biranchi Routray as president ( he will remain president for about
one year until he got shifted to Rourkhela), Dayanidhi Das as general secretary
(he will retain this post all through), Dev Prasad Das as joint secretary and
Batakrishna Sena as treasurer.

From the proceedings of one
meeting held on the 27th of July 1958 we come to know that some
members who had participated in the previous meetings and had been given
traveling allowance by the association for coming to Cuttack from their
respective places, started to antagonize Jayantika pretending not to know about
it and declaring that they had participated only as spectators and not as active members. In the same proceedings it is
also specified that although the participation fee was of 1 Rs., Laxmipriya
(Kelucharan Mohapatra’s wife) gave 2 Rs., Gora Chand Misra 3 and Biranchi
Routray 5.

In spite of all the good
intentions of the founding members, it
took almost one year for the new association to consolidate and start
producing some results. By July 1959 the need to become more united and to
safeguard the purity of the style became more and more urgent. During a meeting
held on the 3rd of July 1959, Dev Babu refers to the case of a
certain Vinod Chopra who had approached him for learning Odissi in a couple of
days. In spite of all the pressure put on him and also the possibility to earn
good money, he refused. These and other similar episodes made the members more
and more convinced of the necessity of establishing a research wing for
research on Odissi and folk dances (it is interesting to notice the interest
and stress put each time on the study and research on the folk dances along
with Odissi which indicates that by that time the dichotomy between the two had
not reached the proportion that it has nowadays) under the banner of Jayantika,
to assign to each research scholar a particular topic and to ask to each of
them to present their report every fortnight to Jayantika . The deliberation at
this regard was taken in the meeting of the 11th of July (held in
the open space of Kala Vikash Kendra new building) during which it was also
decided to ask Orissa Sangeet Academi assistance for the project.

The next meeting held on the 19th
of July at Raghunathji Mandir in Telenga Bazaar, at 1 P.M., was going to be a
crucial one. The 9 members present, Dayanidhi Das, Raghunath Dutta, Mayadhar
Rout, Balaram Misra, Kartik Gosh, Batakrishna Sen, Kelucharan Mohapatra and
Chakradhar Kwanr, signed in blood and ink (the signatures are still visible at
the bottom of the paper) the following declaration: “In today meeting we
promise that we will abide to the decisions and course of action deliberated by
Jayantika and we will not allow any action which will negatively affect
Jayantika”.

The repertoire

Towards the end of July of the
same year an other cucial meeting took place. By this time Lokanath Misra (
publisher of Ganatantra) had taken the place of Biranchi Routary as president
and Dhiren Pattnaik had become vice-president (he will become the president
when, in the beginning of 1960 Lokanath Misra becomes Member of Parliament and
shifts to Delhi).The venue for the meeting had also changed to Lokanath Misra’s
office room in Dargha bazaar. In this meeting the course of an Odissi program
was discussed and the guru-s presented the following proposals: Kelu Babu
proposed 5 items (bhumi pranam, batu, pallavi, abhinaya, pahapata), Dev Babu 7 items
(bhumi pranam, bandana, batu, ista deva
bandana, nartana, ragarupa, pallavi),
Dayanidhi Das 5 items (mangala charan,
batu, pallavi, abhinaya, anandanrutya),
Dhiren Patnaik 7 items (jagarana, bandana,
pallavi, abhinaya, jhantari, batu,sabdam). At the end they decided for; mangala charan, batu, pallavi, abhinaya,mokshya nata.

In the proceedings of a meeting
held on the 29th of August of the same year we find a detailed
description of batu nritya, passed
and signed by Batakrishna Sen, Dhayanidhi Das, Raghunath Dutta, Balaram Misra
and Dhirendanath Patnaik. The main points are: the item is dedicated to Shiva
in the form of Batukaishwara Bhairava, it should start by showing the musicians
playing the veena, flute, mardala and manjira, it should contain the sthai
ukuta (in one of his article Dhayanidhi Das declares that to chose the
opening bols for the batu
both he and Kelu Babu went to Shyam Sunder Singhari and it was he who suggested
the by now famous ta kadataka dhi kadataka ta dhi kadataka jhe ) and a
variety of khandi, arasa and muktai, it should contain the following bhangi accompanied by movements of eyes and neck, akunchana, nikunchana, darpana, biraja,
kari hasta, kati china, abhimana, parsua mardala, it should strictly not
contain the chakra bhramari. The
declaration ends with the sentence that everybody should follow this pattern.

It is well known that Dev Babu
and Pankhaj Babu did not agree with this version of batu which came to be known as Kelu
gharana. It is interesting to read the version of batu described by Mohan Khokar in the article ‘Technique and Repertoire’
published in the Marg magazine in 1960. This batu which starts with ritualistic actions in honor of Shiva and
proceeds almost like a varnam alternating passages of nritta with passages of sahitya could very well be the version
which Dev Babu had in mind at that point of time, since also the rest of the
repertoire described by Khokar is very similar to the one proposed by Dev Babu
in the meeting of July 1959. It could also be the reason why the batu, which is an item of pure dance, is
often referred to as batunritya instead of batu nritta.

The meetings between July and
December 1959 were held almost daily as one can make out by the number of
proceedings maintained, many of which are reports of what had been taught that
particular day by each guru in the class at Kala Vikash Kendra. It is evident
that the get together were happening late at night after all the guru came back
from classes and tuitions. Many of these reports contain detailed description
of technical aspects such as chari-s,
banghi-s, mudra-s and tala patterns
with their proper names and way of execution (in one of these reports, signed
by Raghu Dutta, we find that among the teachings imparted to the first year
students, there where also six types of bandha-s,
something which nowadays has been totally discontinue). One wishes that the
Odissi Research Centre could have been able to have access to
these documents when in the 80’s it set about to re-write the theoretic
aspects of the dance; this would have been
a deserving tribute to the work
of these pioneers and would have added authenticity to the effort.

Programmes

Most of the proceedings of the month of August 1959 are dealing with the organization of the
first official dance demonstration curated by Jayantika. Discussions delve
around content, dates and who will perform what. The date of the 14th of September
was finally decided after Chief Minister Hare Krishna Mahatab gave his consent
to be the Chief Guest (it is heartening to see how at this juncture people from
all walks of life, politicians, lawyers, writers, journalists, intellectuals,
were sincerely involved and active in the reconstruction of the Odissi dance, something that would be
unthinkable nowadays!). During the program, which was held at the Nari Seva
Sangh in Cuttack, Dev Babu gave demonstration of bhangi and pada bheda,
Mayadhar Rout of hasta mudra and
Jayanti Ghose and Sanjukta Misra (not yet Panigrahi at that point) danced for
about 25 min. presenting mangala charan,
batu, basanta pallavi, odiaabhinaya and mokshya as separate items.

One
should take note that by this time some important events had already
taken place in the history of Odissi dance; in January
1958 Kelu Babu had accompanied Kalicharan Patnaik to Madras
on the occasion of the All India Dance
Seminar held during the 31st Conference of the MusicAcademy\. On behalf of the Kala Vikash Kendra
Sanjukta danced lalita labanga lata
accompanied by Kelucharan on the mardala
and Balakrishna Das as vocalist while Kalicharan Patnaik read a paper on the historical and practical aspects of
Odissi. On the 5th of April of the same year, Jayanty Ghose and Dev Babu presented a demonstration in New Delhi during the All
India Dance Seminar organised by the Sangeet Natak Academi at Bigyan Bhawan. On
this occasion too Kalicharan Patnaik read a paper on the classical aspects of
the dance and Jayanty danced mangala
charana, batu, dekhiba paraasare and mokshya although
still presented as one single item of about 15 min.

Both these two programs were presented on behalf of Kala Vikash
Kendra (as was also the Odissi presented in March 1959 at the All India Dance Festival in Calcutta organised by
Nritya Bharati; where Kumkum Das and Krishnapriya Nanda danced a Radha-Krishna duet accompanied by
Kelucharan on the mardala). It is
known that the relationship between Jayantika and Kala Vikash Kendra, although
both were working towards the same goal and for more than one year the meetings
of the first were held in the premises of the second, were not too friendly, or
perhaps they became such once Babulal Doshi
started to fear that Jayantika would take away attention and credit from the
achievements of the Kendra, to the establishment of which he had dedicated his
entire life. Whatever it is, there is no doubt that both these institutions and
the people involved in it, have been vital
for the reconstruction and perpetuation of the Odissi dance.

An other important program organised on behalf of Jayantika, the
preparation for which started in December itself, was the one put up at Cuttack in June 1960.
While on 6th of October 1959 the program put up at Puri was involving
not only Odissi dance but also folk dance and classical music, the one planned
for June 1960 (the date for this was changed several times) was to be a
comparative demonstration between Odissi, Kathak and Bharat Natyam. From
December 1959 onwards, the meetings
devoted to the planning of this important demonstration, were attended not only
by the guru-s, but also by the dancers involved, Krishanapriya Nanda,
Priyambada Mohanty, Jayanti Ghose and Sanjukta Misra. On 30th of
June in the program ‘Comparative
study-Bharat Natyam, Kathak and Odissi’, Raghunath Dutta presented Kathak
dance, Mayadhar Rout danced the ashtapadi
hari rihamugdha in Bharat Natyam
style and in Odissi the following items were demonstrated: mangala charan in group by all the 4 dancers, batu by Jayanti and Krishnapriya, pallavi and abhinaya by
Sanjukta and Priyambada and mokshya
by all the 4 dancers. Accompanying at the mardala
was Dayanidhi Das instead of Kelu Babu (
he had not yet recovered from
tuberculosis by then. We know from the proceedings of a meeting held on
the 24th of May 1960 that a collection of Rs. 200 had been raised
among the members and donated to him for his therapy ).

A felicitation meeting in honour of Dev Babu, who had returned from
a successful tour to Australia
and Indonesia
accompanying Indrani Rehman, was held on the 3rd of December 1959. The speech read
in his honour, highlights the great sense of pride felt by all the members at
the successful tour of the guru which helped in spreading the fame of the Odissi
dance outside India;
on the occasion the other accompanying musicians were also felicitated.

It is difficult to establish when exactly Jayantika ceased to exist.
There are proceedings dated until 1963/ beginning of ‘64. In a meeting dated 8th
August 1963, held at 2 P.M., the members present expressed their happiness at
the establishment of the Utkal Sangeet Mahavidyalay at Bhubaneswar (which will
start the activity from April 1964) but at the same time passed a resolution to
invite the Sangeet Natak Academi (under which the Mahavidyalay was going to
function) to make sure that the syllabus and curriculum of the Odissi dance
course would follow the rules established by Jayantika.

Perhaps it was too much of a dream to think that a body of this kind
could maintain the control and dictate
rules on a discipline like dance
which relies so much on the individual talent
and creativity of its exponents. Disagreements and private assignments
surfaced perhaps too soon and did not allow
the initial intentions to get fulfilled.
Until today the Odissi masters don’t have a common guideline book to
follow while teaching the theoretic
aspects of the dance and have to rely on their individual knowledge and
interpretation of the classic texts. I am sure the documents left behind by the
Jayantika members, especially the ones concerning the technical aspects and
definitions, would be useful in this regard.

The proposed OdissiMuseum which the Department of Culture intends to put
up in the precincts of the Odissi Research Centre at Bhubaneswar should definitely preserves these
original manuscripts as important
documents of the history of Odissi dance. Besides a publication should be
curated for the benefit of all the Odissi practitioners, by giving the duly recognition
to the Dhayanidhi Sruti Kala Parishad and to its founder, guru Dhayanidhi Das, one of the many self
made artists, dancers and musicians all rolled in one, who have dedicated their
entire life to the cause of Odissi dance, but have hardly received any recognition
so far.

Subscribe

Blog Archive

About Me

Dr. Ileana Citaristi is an Italian-born Odissi and Chhau dancer, based in Bhubaneshwar, India. She was awarded the 43rd National Film Awards for Best Choreography for Yugant in 1995 and conferred with the Padma Shri in 2006 for her contributions to Odissi.
Besides Yugantar, a Bengali film directed by Aparna Sen for which she won a National Film Award in 1996, Dr. Citaristi has also choreographed for M.F. Hussain's Meenaxi: A Tale of Three Cities (2004) and Goutam Ghose's Abar Aranye (2003). Dr. Citaristi is also the author of two books. In 2001, she published The Making of a Guru: Kelucharan Mohapatra, his Life and Times and in 2012 the Traditional Martial Practices in Orissa.